Kukla's Korner Hockey

The NHL season should begin in the middle of summer — in the days immediately following the NBA Finals — and the league should crown its champion in the latest days of winter, sometime around the middle of March. If hockey’s most important playoff games can be played during the warm months, then why can’t its first couple of months of games. And doesn’t it make more sense to cozy up to the fire while watching the Stanley Cup get hoisted than it does to make sure your kid changes out of his bathing suit before plopping down on the couch to do so?

True, under such a format the NHL’s playoff season would start right around the same time the NFL season wraps up — and the Super Bowl would be played smack in the middle of it. But at least the NHL would have a chance to play its biggest games — its semfinals and finals — during a period of time that is now considered a dead zone for major sports — the final days of February and most of March.

Sports fans can then turn their attention to the NCAA Tournament, the baseball season and the NBA playoffs — but only after the Cup is raised instead of while it is.